Category Archives: Money

The Reviews Are In…

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Photo by Nik on Unsplash

And they are all one-star bad. Apparently, this was the point of last week’s Amazon brushing incident, to dirt on the competitors. Why would anyone want to but this crap? I mean the fake reviews, not the actual products. To remind the casual reader, last week, I was subjected to a “brushing” attack on Amazon. Someone bought half-a-dozen items in my name. They were all useless things, at least to me, so I promptly returned them all. An Amazon gift card was used to spend the almost $200 and all of that money is now credited to my account. Since then, I have received notices that I have one-star reviewed everything. I filed a complaint for the lot of them and have received an automated response saying that they will look into it. Further investigation revealed that these spammers had been mucking about in my account for weeks. I have no idea if this will continue. I supposed that I should put out one of those send to all emails, telling everyone to disregard any of my reviews, but that seems pointless. I’m no influencer and I have no brand to protect. The business model for this e-commerce attack is still a mystery to me, but at least I got paid.

Good For One Fare

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Pictured is a coin that reads Good for One Fare, on one side and United Electric Railways Company on the other. UER was a public transit provider in Providence, RI. A distinctive feature o this token is the star-shaped cutout in its center. These coins represent a bygone era of public transportation when physical tokens were commonly used instead of modern electronic payment methods like smart cards or mobile apps.

Anne was going through old coin jars when she found this token. She also found numerous other old coins that were typically going for a few bucks on eBay, when she found a 1911 Canadian penny. Looking that coin up, one of the entries came back at $100,000. Momentarily she thought that she had struck it rich, but that valuation was for a special, limited test run and not the coin in her hand. Still, per eBay $3 represents an increase of 30,000%.

Only a few more days remain until our departure east. My goal is to leave the house in a state that in showable. Exterior power washing today, with windows to follow after our departure and hopefully a deep cleaning after that. What we cannot ling in the next couple of days, will go into closets to hide until after the showing. Other than the pile of stuff waiting at the front door to go out, sheets over furniture and art for sun protection and the primary bedroom, things are looking good. We still have a lot more stuff to fling or sort, but overall things are looking good. We might actually be able to sell this place yet.

Money, Lawyers, Money

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American Law

We met with the estate lawyer, where I signed a bunch of paperwork and we paid him a bunch of money. I have to get a couple of bank accounts setup, to funnel the estate’s money through. We got a response from one of the auction houses that I had reached out to. It was interesting, some good, some bad. I am mostly pleased with the level of their interest. I was beginning to believe that the only place that was interested in any of my parent’s stuff was Goodwill. We went to Home Depot and got a bunch of packing supplies. Let the chaos begin!

The law books were my maternal grandfather Frank’s. Inside one of them was the pictured 10 Yen note. This money came from Frank’s sister, my Great Aunt Alice, who was a nurse in the American army of occupation after the war. It is Japanese military script, possibly from World War II. These notes were originally issued to soldiers of the Imperial Japanese Army. These military yen notes were distinct from the regular Japanese yen used in commerce. They were used in occupied territories and by the military. The notes were part of a broader system of military currencies issued by Japan during the war. After the war, some Allied Military Currency was issued for use in occupied Japan, including 10-yen notes. These notes often had similar designs to the Japanese military yen for ease of production. Today, these notes are primarily of interest to collectors as historical artifacts. They represent history and offer a connection to the past.  

WW II Japanese Military Script – 10 Yen

Tax Season

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Tax Man – Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

Yesterday, I got our taxes done. It took less than an hour. We have to pay more to the Feds. Got to pay for all those new tax cuts for the rich. We do get money back from the state, so that the net turned out pretty close to zero. Anyway, its done. I try to get our taxes done early to help avoid identity theft. I don’t know how effective a strategy this really is, except there have been no problems so far. For me, tax season begins when all the W-2s and 1099s have arrived, which they did last Saturday. I used TurboTax, because I always have. It is sort of force of habit now. I do not like paying taxes. Who does? But I understand the necessity of it. Unlike certain billionaires. Tesla paid no taxes last year. Now, between Social Security and Medicare, we are getting a return on our decades of investment. I do not care to see it stolen by a bunch of rich dudes, who only want to become richer. All at my expense.

Livin’ la Vida Loca

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American Stock Exchange

Next month, my bride will be a septuagenarian and she will begin drawing on her social security. She has waited until now to begin taking this retirement benefit, much to my consternation. I quit work at 62 but waited until my full retirement age to begin receiving social security checks. I thought Anne should do the same, but she did not. Instead of beginning at 66 and 2 months, she has waited until now. We are about to enjoy the fruits of her patience. Her benefit will now be roughly the same as mine. If she had begun drawing social security at her full retirement age, her benefit would have been little more than half of mine. She will enjoy the 8½% per year raise that has been further compounded by cost-of-living increases. With inflation those have been hefty as of late. Her patience is its own reward. This new revenue stream will flip the equation on how we support ourselves. Up until now, we have primarily relied upon our savings, but going forward, social security will become the biggest contributor. These financial sea changes will roil our taxes. This last year we got burnt by poor tax planning; I hope going forward to avoid any further such consequences.

Weeping Cherry

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Weeping Cherry

I am in mourning today, because I paid my taxes. Well, I at least wrote the check to pay my taxes and I plan on mailing it later today. I filed months ago, and I am only now getting around to paying what I owe. The funds are not there yet, but that is OK. They will make it in plenty of time. The check has to go to Jeff City, where it will sit for a while. Typically, state tax checks take a couple of weeks to clear. What they do in all of that time is a mystery to me. I imagine sorting is involved, lots of sorting. Normally, having all of that cash sitting in the checking account bothers me. I have to keep reminding myself that it is money already spent. With this payment the huge lump in our fiscal snake should begin to go down, but it will still take two weeks to fully digest.